


G. I. T.: Ghostbusters In Training

by burglebezzlement



Category: Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: Candy, Citizen Science, Costumes, Gen, Halloween, Help the Ghost Girls 2K19, Terrible judgement on child-appropriate toys, Trick or Treating, and the legal implications thereof, patents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-02 00:37:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21152693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/burglebezzlement/pseuds/burglebezzlement
Summary: Holtz is leaving the Target Halloween section, her cart overloaded with candy and an inflatable dragon sculpture, when she sees it.





	G. I. T.: Ghostbusters In Training

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SadieFlood](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SadieFlood/gifts).

Holtz is leaving the Target Halloween section, her cart overloaded with candy and an inflatable dragon sculpture, when she sees it. A child-sized costume of cheap tan and orange nylon, with a molded-plastic backpack.

She stops dead in the aisle, blind to the other shoppers. She’s seen children dressed up like the Ghostbusters before — a lot of the kids coming to the Firehouse for trick-or-treating every year are fans. Some of them even have their own little Ghostbusters proton packs, made from surplus kitchen equipment. But Holtz didn’t realize the Ghostbusters were big enough for Target.

The costume feels flimsy in her hands. The nylon is low-quality, like it might melt into your skin if you tried to wear it in a genuine spectre-to-human combat situation.

And the proton pack. Holtz switches it on, but all that lights up is a feebly blinking LED at the end of the plasma beam tuning cavity. She could weep.

This will not stand. Holtz grabs the costume, her loaded cart forgotten, and marches to the front of the store.

* * *

Holtz bounds into the Ghostbusters’ main living area and throws the costume down on the table. “Look at this!”

Patty looks over from the computer. “It’s cute, Holtzy, but I’m not sure why you bought one.”

“It’s _fake_,” Holtz says. “The proton pack doesn’t do anything. The PKE meter doesn’t even turn on.”

Erin bites her lip and glances over at the area the Ghostbusters use for training. The walls are scarred with proton discharge burns. “I don’t think parents will want to give their kids real proton packs,” she says.

Holtz thinks about that. Imagines a kid trying to hold on to a bucking proton wand… “Okay, fair enough,” she says. “But why doesn’t the PKE meter work?

“What about the other Ghost Girls?” Holtz asks, looking at Erin. “What if some little Erin out there buys the costume? What if she tries to use this to prove that she’s being haunted, and her parents don’t believe her? We could make PKE meters that are safe for kids.” She sees the other Ghostbusters’ skeptical looks. “We could,” she insists.

“We talked about licensing our equipment,” Abby says. “You were the one who said you didn’t want the Ghost Jumpers using our technology on their crappy show.”

“So we make it so they can’t use it,” Holtz says. “Like what’s-his-face — that artist in England who wouldn’t let that dickhead with the black paint use his pink paint.”

“Don’t think we need to worry about the Ghost Jumpers,” Patty says, looking up from her computer again. “Looks like they got cancelled after all that shit went down.”

“I bet they did,” Abby says happily. “It’s hard to keep people interested in some producer pulling on someone’s shirt when you can see real ghosts all over Instagram and YouTube.”

Erin pulls down a big binder from over her desk. She flips it open and looks through the organizer tabs bristling from its pages. “We had offers from toy makers,” she says. 

Abby shrugs. “I’m in. But any company we partner with is going to make you file a patent, Holtz.”

Holtz considers this. “Dr. Gorin always said filing a patent application was just a way for the government to find out your plans.”

“The government already knows,” Erin says. “The Mayor’s Office is funding us.”

Holtz grins. “So what are we waiting for?”

* * *

** _One Year Later_ **

Patty crouches down so she’s on a tiny child’s level. “Do you want to show me where you found the ghost?”

The kid nods wildly. Patty looks to the kid’s mom for permission, and then brings the kid over to the computer station they’ve set up for trick or treaters. 

Since their officially-licensed, fully-functional PKE meter came out for sale, the Ghostbusters have been inundated with calls. Patty and Erin have been leading a citizen-science project to record the reports and set up a GIS system for recording hot spots. Their manufacturing partner has even agreed to help fund an app.

The new data’s already come in handy — the Mayor took one look at the heat map of elevated PKE readings over at Washington Square Park and agreed to fund the remote monitoring system Holtz has been developing. And the Ghostbusters have had calls from other cities who are alarmed at the number of sightings in their towns. They’re even talking franchising, although Holtz isn’t sure about that. Maybe a road team, who can stay with the Ghostbusters part of the year for training, and then be mobile the rest of the time, responding to the latest paranormal threats. 

Holtz grins at the sight of another group of trick-or-treaters arriving with a PKE meter in tow.

“There’s no ghosts here,” the lead trick-or-treater announces to the others. She looks up at Holtz from under her witch’s hat. “I thought you had ghosts here.”

“Our ghosts are in a containment system,” Holtz says. “If they just hung around the Firehouse, we wouldn’t be able to get much done. We’d have to keep busting them all the time.”

The other two trick-or-treaters accept their snack-sized packages of salty parabolas and say thank you when their caretaker prompts them. 

The witch ignores the salty parabolas. “That doesn’t make sense,” she says stubbornly. “If there’s ghosts here, I should be able to detect them.”

“The containment unit is only sort of in this world,” Holtz says. “Erin and Abby could explain the math to you, but from the engineering side, you can think of it as creating a twist in space that keeps the ghosts contained. That means their psychokinetic energy emissions are contained within that spatial twist.”

The witch’s caretaker leans forward. “Rebecca, I think we’re taking up too much of this nice lady’s time.”

“I’m not a nice lady,” Holtz says. “I’m an engineer. And kids like Rebecca here are the entire reason why we released the PKE meter! Rebecca, do you want to see the containment unit?”

The caretaker takes a step back. “We really should be —”

“Yes!” Rebecca drops her candy bag.

“Come with me,” Holtz says grandly. She hands the bag of snacks off to Erin as she goes, snagging a package of salty parabolas for herself. “This way for all Ghostbusters-in-training.”


End file.
